


Yunru Interval

by inalasahl



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Community: noglove_nolove, F/F, Future Fic, Safer Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-09-04
Updated: 2006-09-04
Packaged: 2017-11-02 02:18:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/363912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inalasahl/pseuds/inalasahl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The second war changed everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yunru Interval

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ion_bond](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ion_bond/gifts).



> Thanks to the brilliant and patient [janeeyre17](http://janeeyre17.livejournal.com) for the beta. Contains Big Damn Movie spoilers! Written for the [No Glove, No Love](http://noglove-nolove.livejournal.com/) ficathon.

The boy was dark-haired and tall. He'd been drinking before he arrived, his fingers fumbling at her. "We had a companion house near my home," he mumbled. "Used to see it every day on my way to school. Liked the pillars." 

"Where is your home?" 

"Londinum." 

"Londinum," she said. "There is such lovely architecture there." They were all the same these children who'd done terrible things and wondered how they'd be able to go back afterward. 

He was the last on the schedule. She'd be able to fly out of here tomorrow. Inara itched to leave now, but it would not do to appear overeager. Companions could go anywhere, even Muir. There was simply no legitimate reason for her to want to. Rebel-controlled with minimal settlement, Muir had nothing save its mining operations, factories and space docks: An entire planet turned to ship-building. 

Space being large and empty, she had hoped to avoid any Alliance patrols. Instead, she'd lost an entire week. 

"Ma'am, we really don't recommend—" 

"I appreciate your concern, Commander." 

* * *

She was already gone from Muir by the time Inara arrived. "We had to send her to Regina. It wasn't good for her to be here." 

* * *

The local field office on Regina was able to give Inara her exact location. "There's a clearing where you can land your ship, but someone's going to have to hike in after her, and we ain't got the—" 

"I will have to borrow appropriate shoes," she said. 

Regina's largest rain forest was not an airy picnicking sort of place. The trees crowded in, letting almost no light in. Inara strained to see in the gloom, her breaths coming in deep gasps as her lungs strained against the thick humidity. She tried to ignore the bugs leaving raised bumps and welts along her skin. It would have to be dealt with later. She found the tent and its occupant after more than a mile of walking. She was too tired to be shocked by the haggard figure before her. 

Kaylee was the kind who flourished best in the light. 

"Who sent for you?" Kaylee's left hand flexed around the fishing rod it held. It was too dark to see much more than that, though Inara could tell Kaylee was looking at the water, not her. 

"Simon. Mal." 

"Then everyone knows." 

"You haven't seen my new ship, yet." 

Kaylee tossed her head. "The doctors told me to go fishing. They said it would be good for me." 

"This is a swamp, mei-mei." 

"Blackwater fish is fish." 

* * *

Inara had her own ship now, her own crew, whose job it was to fly her from place and place and make sure life was neat and secure. Mal had started the second war as a blockade runner, little enough different from smuggling. Inara couldn't stay for that and keep her companion license. Neither of them were ready for what options they'd have once she retired. 

They had not all split off at once, but eventually, as the new war took wing. 

Zoe and Mal had quarreled. The "legendary" Malcolm Reynolds who had risked everything to expose the Alliance's machinations in the war was offered command over 3000 folk and the rank of general. Zoe, the woman who had lost her everything, was offered a "promotion" to lieutenant and the oversight of 30. Zoe had accepted the commission; Mal had not. 

According to Simon, Mal had flown without her two months before the morning he'd woken up, cursed the verse soundly and joined up as a sergeant under Zoe's command. 

Nobody knew what River did, but the war seemed to turn in the Browncoats favor, wherever she and Serenity went. (The ship on loan, of course. Mal had not grown that much.) Simon was with her, and Jayne. Kaylee was not. 

Kaylee went to Muir to oversee the dockyards. Every ship in the Browncoat fleet was precious and mechanics as good as Kaylee, who could keep a thing running indefinitely, were in short supply. 

The knock on her door took Inara from reverie. "Come in," she said. 

"Your license lapsed yesterday. However, in recognition of your important work keeping morale up in these trying times, the guild has granted you an extension. They'll be sending a physician to you." 

"Thank you, Sheydra." Inara smiled. 

Sheydra had come to her two years earlier. "I know what you are doing," she had said. Inara had gone very, very careful. "I want to come with you." She had curled up red manicured fingers and whispered, "I had cousins on Miranda." 

There was nothing more to be said. After plugging the holes that had allowed Sheydra to figure it out and checking the story, Inara had taken her on. It had been a good choice. She was an excellent assistant. And there was no fervor to match that of those outraged on behalf of others. 

Inara was very careful about what information she gathered from her clients, what she chose to pass on and who to. It was not enough. It never would be, but it helped and it was all she could do. Movement was restricted most places these days, but there was not an Alliance commander anywhere whose troops wouldn't mutiny if they found out he or she had refused access to Inara Serra, registered companion. 

"She's tearing up our engine room." 

"Good. They told me she refused to touch a tool on Muir. We should leave her alone for the night, let her get settled in." 

* * *

The next morning, Inara found Kaylee in her engine room, tucked in between wires with panels at her feet. "You got a mechanic for this Alliance-built pile of go se?" 

Inara shook her head. "No." 

"You been letting purple bellies do her maintenance! What do they know about keeping a ship running? Something breaks down, they just commission more." Kaylee spat in her fingers and wiped her hand against her coveralls. "It's going to take hours to muck this out." 

"I'll bring you lunch." 

Kaylee paused, one hand inside the engine. "Nara, I killed someone." 

"I know, mei-mei." She knelt down and took Kaylee's face in her hands. "I know." 

Kaylee cried as a squall, tears arriving fast and furious, leaving just as quickly. 

* * *

The morning after that, Inara had a hammock strung in the engine room and Kaylee moved what things she had into it. 

The next time Inara went to check on Kaylee, she frowned. "You have a headache." A pinched expression marred Kaylee's face. 

"Just a little one." 

"Sit. We can brush it away." 

Kaylee still kept her hair long, but now she kept it braided and folded in on itself in deference to her position. Inara pulled the bands from it, finger-combing it loose until in crackled in the candlelight. "I have always loved your hair." 

Kaylee's only answer was to tip her head forward giving Inara greater access. She moved away for a moment, then used the pads of her fingers to stroke balm on Kaylee's temples. Kaylee was restless seeming, and Inara sucked in a breath as Kaylee's hand groped out, seeking contact and met with Inara's knee. As Kaylee traced over it, Inara was not unaffected. 

"Kaylee, that's not why I brought you here." 

"Then why'd they send _you?_ " 

"Mal wanted Simon to come. Simon asked me." Inara had let go Kaylee's hair and was holding the hand that had been tracing her knee instead. "I thought maybe you'd had a falling out." 

Kaylee gaped for a moment, and then laughed, rich and full, with her whole body. "You and I take a tumble and one of us decides that's not what we want after all, you gonna stop being my friend?" 

"Of course not," Inara said, ignoring the thump inside her after "you and I take a tumble." 

"Me neither." Kaylee twisted around in the chair and pulled Inara in for a kiss. 

"Kaylee," Inara muttered, turning her head away. "It has been some time since I have had the opportunity to go for my yearly check-up." 

Kaylee smiled. "They may need fancy doctors in the Core, but we got our ways out here." Inara was too busy marveling at Kaylee saying doctor without flinching to notice at first what she had in her hand. "Ya ever use one before?" 

"Not really. We were trained ... some clients like the old-fashioned, but I haven't had one yet who requested it." 

Kaylee stood, hair swirling with the movement. "It's your bed." 

Inara smiled then. "Lie in it?" 

Inara moved to help Kaylee off with her coveralls, taking in the generous view of smooth curved skin as each inch revealed itself. Their hands bumped together, mingling, as the most lustful belly button Inara had ever seen distracted her. She resisted the urge to lick it. For now. Instead Inara's lips moved down Kaylee's shoulder, down her chest, around the swell of her breast and across the ripe tip. Marking her way by the changes in Kaylee's breathing. 

Eventually, she made her way downward, reaching for the dental dam, swirling her tongue against the soft, soft skin of Kaylee's belly, dipping across her belly button. Kaylee tanged of metal and sweat. Inara glanced upward to see Kaylee looking at her with such a tender expression, it felt like cheating. Inara was supposed to be taking care of her, not the other way around. She spread the dam over Kaylee, obscuring her view of Kaylee's rosy clit, but it was for a good cause. 

The fall was not long in coming, Kaylee already wound tight and needing to spring. Afterward, Inara rolled, cradling Kaylee to her, half-convinced she'd fall asleep, but it was only a handful of minutes before Kaylee looked up. "My turn," she said, licking her lips, and Inara felt the jolt from her sternum to her toes. 

* * *

Kaylee ran her hand down a bulkhead. "What's her name?" 

"Yunru." 

Kaylee snorted. "You should buy a better one." 

"I don't need a better one." 

"One of those new ones from Blue Sun they've been promoting all over the Cortex. 'Give your family the safety of military-grade protection.' Buy one of them. Come see me on Muir." 

"Blue Sun, who just got a new Alliance contract." 

"All their rations and all their ships. Bound to be similarities." 

Inara's lips twitched. "You just want me for my alloys." 

Kaylee grinned. "Yep." 

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Rated for semi-explicit sex.


End file.
